The Problem

Plastic Bottles Are Filling the Seas and Burying the Planet

We’re drowning in plastic. Every minute, we buy a million plastic bottles. We make 20,000 plastic bottles every second. Fewer than half of those bottles are recycled and just 7 percent are turned into new bottles. Most of that plastic ends up in landfills or contributes to the growing garbage patches in the sea. According to The Ocean Cleanup project, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch now covers 1.6 million square kilometers and contains 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic. The north Atlantic has its own floating patch of plastic garbage that stretches over hundreds of kilometers.

That plastic waste isn’t just unsightly. It’s also dangerous. Plastic particles are eaten by seabirds and also by fish which make their way into the human food chain. The European Food Safety Authority has called for urgent research into the effects of plastics on human health and food safety.